A Ball State University professor's research on spoken language has led to changes to employee-visitor interaction in one central Indiana living-history exhibit.
Conner Prairie's living-history exhibit, in Fishers, selected Mary Theresa Seig, associate professor of English, to be part of the Opening Doors initiative that created a team to make changes to the park in 2001. Those changes were made after Seig's research indicated workers were not engaging with the visitors and learning was difficult.
"I went to Conner Prairie as a visitor and I, personally, had difficulty engaging the workers in conversation," Seig said. "The process was very one-sided."
Before the changes, each tour's format did not vary. People may have had the opportunity to visit different areas of the village, but the same type of message was delivered at each post. The workers lectured on specific information and there was a large amount of information given at once that may have been hard to understand, Seig said.
Her visit was bad enough that Seig decided to begin researching people's opinions of the park. After analyzing her data, she concluded many people's experiences were similar to viewing a plaque or hearing a lecture. Conner Prairie's learning efforts were apparently not reaching to their full potential.
"We were confident in the direction that the research indicated." Ken Bubp, Strategic Planning Director of Conner Prairie, said. "Other museums around the country were struggling in attendance and their ability to educate their visitors. We knew we had to make a change."
Now, each visit is different. The employees interact with visitors on a more personal level and are encouraged to steer the conversation toward the guest's interests and find out what they want to know more about, Bubp said. The employees have vastly increased the amount of information they share with visitors, he said. Since each visit and conversation is unique, people may come more than once and get a different experience every time. Bubp said he thought the changes had been very beneficial to the visitors' experience.
"Guests are learning a lot more," he said. "The workers are encouraged to engage much more with the audience. Guests of the park are much more satisfied with their experience."
The process didn't happen overnight. Once Seig's research was analyzed, the correct decisions had to be made and the proper changes implemented in the right places.
"There weren't any immediate changes." Seig said. "The whole process took some time. Interpreters had to reframe their view of the interaction process with the visitors. They understand more about learning theory and discourse analysis now."
While the changes were made to help the visitors, there was an initial fear that some of Conner Prairie's historical authenticity and accuracy might be affected in the employee-visitor interaction process.
"We were concerned that the historical authenticity may have been compromised in the new format," Seig said. "Prior to 2001, Conner Prairie was well known for its historical authenticity."
To prevent negative effects, employees spend more time training in how to deal with contextual questions, Bubp said. They participate in more role-playing exercises and training sessions to ensure they do not forget their roles in front of an audience.
Conner Prairie has an annual attendance of more than 300,000. Guests are leaving satisfied and more informed about this historical era, Bubp said. He said he is receiving lots of positive feedback from guests about the changes.
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